FAMILY SATCRNI.UXE. 231 



of the head, and one of equal length upon the posterior extremity. It is also orna- 

 mented with four equal cut brushes of hair upon its hack, situated upon the anterior 

 half of the body, and is fringed along its abdomen and extremities with long hairs. 

 This caterpillar is common here in the spring, and feeds upon the leaves of the oak and 

 the horse-chestnut. 



Saturniaclae. 



BOMBYCID.E (Stephens). 



The caterpillars of this family are naked, cylindrical, and, as Mr. Harris describes them, 

 have hunched backs. They are furnished with warts, which are often bristled, and may 

 be either simple or compound in form. They construct a cocoon of silk, which is placed 

 within a single leaf, or else within several drawn together so as to form a partial protection 

 against the outside ; or sometimes they are fastened longitudinally to a twig by gummy 

 matter. They are unlike the pupa-cases of the Papiliones, which are angular, spinous, and 

 suspended by a short thread with the head downwards. 



The antenna? of the moths are strongly and doubly pectinated, especially in the males, 

 and their bodies are thickly covered with a dense mat of hairs or wool. The tongue is 

 rarely visible. The wings, when the moth is at rest, are extended horizontally so as to 

 exhibit both pair : they are also destitute of hooks. The wings are commonly ornamented 

 by one or more conspicuous eyelike spots. 



The insects shun the broad daylight : their eggs are large and numerous : their cocoons 

 are composed of a strong silk, which might possibly be converted to use ; and they offer 

 this advantage, that they feed on the leaves of the common forest-trees, and hence there 

 would be no danger of the loss of silkworms from an accidental scarcity of food, occa- 

 sioned by untimely frosts, etc. 



The Saturxiadx may not be regarded as specially injurious to the farmer, or to forest 

 or fruit-trees : at least the injury they produce is small, compared with that inflicted by 

 cankerworms, leaf-rollers, etc. which are far less conspicuous in themselves. 



The males of this family, according to Mr. Stephens, fly well, and go abroad in the after 

 part of the day. The females fly sluggishly, probably from the weight of the abdomen. 

 The wings are gray or drab, usually of a neutral tint ; and the ornaments consist of ocel- 

 late spots, some of which exhibit the brightest of colors. 



Saturxia mai a. Corn Emperor Moth. ( Plate xxxix, figs. 2, 3, k c, d, e.) 



Wings black, with a broad band of pale yellow traversing the middle, translucent and 

 thin. Forewings marked by a yellow lunar spot near the margin of the inner black part 

 of the base of the wings : lunar spot also upon the middle of the yellow of the pos- 



